Save Birmingham City Council Conservation Department

Note the actual petition link is now  just below, for ease of access.  Reasons for signing follow.

Click here now to sign the petition.  It is easy.  (By all means add a  comment, if you wish, but it is also fine to leave the comment space blank.)    Sign the Statement

Note: we are not possessive of this petition!  Please feel absolutely free to Tweet it on Twitter, Flog it on Face Book, Stick it up on The Stirrer Mail it to The Mail, post it to The Post,  Bang it on your own Blog, or just email it to your friends.  Lets get as many signatures as possible.

Why Sign?

Great concern has now been expressed by Birmingham’s conservationists  at the 23rd February 2010 Council approved Budget plan to disband Birmingham City Council Conservation Department, in order to save £350,000 a year.    Here is one recent piece in The Birmingham Post:

Fears For Birmingham\’s Historic Buildings if Conservation Group is Disbanded

The Council has a ‘Conservation Panel’ of local conservationists who work with the Conservation Department.   The Chair of this panel,  Cllr Paula Smith was, herself, so concerned at the plans to disband the Department that she went against her party in abstaining from voting for this measure.   Birmingham’s Conservation officers are highly trained and experienced not only in Conservation work, but, more specifically in Conservation work in Birmingham.  They know the history of the areas they work with, and they know many of the active voluntary conservationists among the residents; residents who are used to being able to contact the Conservation Department with their concerns and speak to ‘their’ local officers.

There have now been assurances that Birmingham’s Conservation officers will continue but they will be ‘absorbed’ into the general Planning Department.  This is unlikely to be satisfactory.  There seems a real danger that much of the time conservation officers will no longer be engaged on conservation work, at a time when we are already seriously behind on city conservation projects.  Very recently Acocks Green councillors and concerned residents were told that plans to designate an area in Acocks Green as a Conservation Area had been put back from six months to eighteen months, because of the huge backlog of work, and other projects in the pipeline.  This is not just about Acocks Green, though.  This is a city wide petition.  How much Conservation work will happen anywhere in the city after the disbanding of the Department.   How many of our fine buildings will we now lose?

Front 44 Flint Green Road

With thanks to Helen Roberts for raising this, and to David Treadwell Chair of Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum  for locating the pdf of the plans, we are publishing this new plan for 42-44 Flint Green Road, Acocks Green.   I already know that David and I and the Chair of Arden Road residents are in full agreement that this is everything Acocks Green does NOT want.  More details later.  Please look at the pdf of the plan statement at:  documentstream.aspx

The other plan documents can be accessed from this link to Birmingham City Council website: Link to view 42-44 Flint Green Road Plan Application docs

Let the council know what you think.  Let us know what you think.

There is now a batch of pictures of these two fine Victorian houses on Flikr here .   Incidentally, an international Flickr based group collecting examples of attractive and unusual doorways has requested that the photograph of the door way of 44 Flint green Road also be added to their collection.  Request granted.

The application number is: 2009/04327/PA.  This  post will be added to further.

7 Sherbourne Road

Birmingham City Council are currently giving sympathetic consideration to our proposal for a Conservation Area.   They have implied that some part of Acocks Green probably will be given Conservation Area status and have thanked us for drawing their attention to the quality of building in Acocks Green.  They need to consult with various bodies before they proceed further.

Meantime, a  number of people have recently asked us what is happening about this set  fine mid-Victorian properties  in Sherbourne Road, Acocks Green.  For many years they were owned by local builder’s merchants,  E. H. Smith’s.  1-7 are to be demolished and replaced by fourteen houses.  Planning permission was granted on 2 October 2008.  The Planning Application Number is C/02972/08/FUL.   If we had a Conservation already things might have been different.  However one of the conditions of the Planning Approval is the retention and rebuilding of the frontages of these buildings.  Also the Statement supplied by the architects reads: ‘The front elevations of No’s 1-7 will require careful numbering and careful dismantling for re-errection with the new superstructure behind.’  This looks to be starting very soon.  A fence has already appeared in front of some of the buildings.  If you have good reason to believe that conditions are not behing adhered to we have told that it would be best to contact the Council Planning Department.  (303 1115).

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This picture of 20 Dudley Park Road, in the process of recent demolition, was kindly supplied by David Treadwell from Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum. The Forum are supporting The Focus Group in our campaign for a Conservation Area in Acocks Green. The picture helps to say exactly why we need one.

The link here takes you to a disturbing story in our neighbouring suburb of Hall Green. Highfield House Reduced to Rubble. Many Acocks Green people have also commented to us about this, and a similar story concerning Gaydon Hall, in Solihull.

Watch this space for further news about our Conservation Project coming shortly.

Stop Press Update: Our Conservation proposals have now been looked at by Birmingham City Council Conservation Department.  They are seriously considering making part of Acocks Green a Conservation area.  We will know more after a meeting in early June.  However, we have been told that our proposals are put together well and that the quality of buildings in Acocks Green means that there is definitely ‘potential’ for a Conservation Area.   Conservation have thanked us for drawing their attention to this area.

Speakers from Acocks Green Focus Group will be outlining the proposals, their implications,  and the need for a Conservation Area at the Next Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum meeting, at 7.30 pm on Thursday May 14 Acocks Green Baptist Church Hall. (Corner of Yardley Road and Alexander Road, B27.)  For further details of this and other Forum activities  you can also check out the Acocks  Green Neighbourhood Forum’s own new website  here Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum